Ex-FBI Agent: Russia's Meddling Mission Accomplished

FBI Special Agent Leo Taddeo leaves after a press conference by Italian and U.S. authorities on an anti-Mafia operation with numerous arrests reported on both sides of the Atlantic, at Rome's National Anti-Mafia headquarters, on February 11, 2014. (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia's 2016 election meddling campaign was designed to "amplify" discord among Americans, their president, and with Congress, and their execution was "cheap and effective," according to a former FBI special agent in N.Y.'s cyber division.

"I think it's fairly clear the Russians have a cheap and effective way to sow discord and confusion and really undermined the basic principles of democracy," Leo Taddeo told"The Cats Roundtable"on 970 AM-N.Y., The Hill reported. "It really wouldn’t matter what the issue was, as long as people were disagreeing."

The disagreement was what the campaign sought, and it was mission accomplished and "brilliant" execution, according to Taddeo.

"They're going to target whatever makes people passionate, whatever will get them out. And they're going to try to amplify that disagreement and create the kind of division that creates a distraction from America focusing on what Russia thinks is important – things like Ukraine and other foreign policy issues," Taddeo told host John Catsimatidis, per The Hill. "If Americans aren't so confident in their president or the Congress or their government in general, then it makes America weaker when it comes time to act on the foreign stage.

"… It's a brilliant use of a simple technique that's cheap relative to other intelligence operations [designed] to weaken us."

President Donald Trump tweeted last week a rebuke of those in America who have amplified the Russian efforts beyond the 2016 presidential election.

If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!

Russia's 2016 election meddling campaign was designed to "amplify" discord among Americans, their president, and with Congress, and their execution was "cheap and effective," according to a former FBI special agent in N.Y.'s cyber division."I think it's fairly clear the...